title: Feeling entitled to more: ostracism increases dishonest behavior.
abstract: Five experiments tested whether ostracism increases dishonesty through increased feelings of entitlement. Compared with included and control participants, ostracized participants indicated higher levels of dishonest intentions (Experiments 1-3) and cheated more to take undeserved money in a behavioral task (Experiments 4 and 5). In addition, increased feelings of entitlement mediated the effect of ostracism on dishonesty (Experiments 3-5). Framing ostracism as beneficial weakened the connection between ostracism, entitlement, and dishonest behavior (Experiment 5). Together, these findings highlight the significance of entitlement in explaining when and why ostracism increases dishonest behavior and how to weaken this relationship.
authors.affiliation: University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Kai-Tak
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Poon
authors.forename: Zhansheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: C Nathan
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Dewall
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012929:Psychological Distance; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: dishonest behavior; entitlement; ostracism; social exclusion; unethical behavior